The AVAPAR-EPLEX study team recently welcomed representatives from Roche Diagnostics, Adam Thornberg (Roche, Global Medical Affairs) and Themba Ntuli (Roche, Southern Africa Medical Affairs), to Sally Mugabe Central Hospital – laboratory and Neonatal Unit, to observe practices and see where the platform will contribute to blood culture workflows in the care of septic neonates.
The AVAPAR-EPLEX study is working to develop several aspects of blood culture practices, specifically in neonatal sepsis, partnering with the Sally Mugabe Central Hospital Laboratory. Alongside pre-analytical and post-analytical phases focusing on ward and clinic staff training and communication of results, the analytical phase of blood cultures takes place in the laboratory. During this phase, the organisms causing sepsis and the antibiotics that would appropriately treat an infection are investigated, a process that can be hugely subjective, time-consuming, and challenging in resource-limited settings due to stockouts and frequent staff rotation. As such, molecular diagnostic platforms, like the COBAS ePlex platform from Roche Diagnostics, provide the potential for rapid organism identification which is less reliant on multiple consumables than traditional techniques. This offers the potential for results that could be quickly communicated to clinicians and impact patient care, in contrast to previous work in similar settings which has demonstrated that less than 5% of blood culture results are available in a timely fashion to affect patient care.
Adam has worked tirelessly to secure delivery of the COBAS ePlex platform and consumables to Harare, the first time an ePlex platform has been in Africa. This offers huge scope for improved efficiency of the blood culture process, reducing turnaround times and offering antibiotic guidance to clinicians early enough that the care of neonates can be improved through rapid results. The study team are hugely grateful to the Roche team for their enthusiasm, hard work and endeavour in ensuring its delivery to improve the health of Zimbabwean neonates.
It is hoped that this visit will be the first of many as Roche offers its strong commitment to infection research in Zimbabwe.
The AVAPAR-EPLEX study team and Roche representatives at Sally Mugabe Hospital
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